David Ward will wait until September to decide if he will stand against Jean Todt in FIA presidential election

David Ward, the director general of the FIA Foundation, is unlikely to decide
until September at the earliest whether or not to stand against the
incumbent president of the governing body, Jean Todt, in December's FIA
presidential election.

Challenge: Jean Todt (pictured) could see David Ward rival him for the FIA presidency Photo: AFP

For some time there has been talk that a candidate might emerge from the shadows to challenge Todt, the former Ferrari team principal, who took over from Max Mosley at the end of 2009.

Ward, former chief policy advisor to Labour Party leader the Rt Hon John Smith and later one of Mosley's key advisors at the FIA, confirmed yesterday that he was considering standing, if only to generate "a debate" about how the governing body should be run.

It is understood that Ward's potential candidacy was leaked to see what kind of a response it would produce among members.

As the director general of the FIA Foundation, an independently registered charity, Ward does not rely on the patronage of Todt and is said to be comfortable with the idea of testing the waters.

It is understood that he has been discreetly asking around for some time, while not actively campaigning. He could be undermined by his perceived closeness to Mosley, and by extension to F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

Todt, who is yet to announce himself that he intends to stand for a second term, declined to comment on the spectre of Ward although he is said to be sanguine about the possible threat to his leadership.

The Frenchman could find, though, that a groundswell of support builds for an alternative. Despite being virtually anonymous, at least on the Formula One front, for most of his reign, Todt has managed to be hugely divisive on certain key issues, such as rising organisational costs and his handling of the 2011 and 2012 Bahrain grands prix.

On top of that, and perhaps most importantly, Todt has not yet managed to agree terms with Ecclestone over a new commercial agreement between the sport and the FIA, which will determine how much money the governing body has to hand down to the clubs in the coming years.

Todt will be in Hungary this weekend ahead of Sunday's grand prix and is due to meet with several key European members, which may not be entirely coincidental as far as the leaking of the Ward story is concerned.

The whole situation is complicated by the fact that Ecclestone is facing the possibilty of a trial in Germany over bribery charges relating to the last sale of Formula One to its current owner CVC Capital.

Those wishing to stand for office must put in their election lists between October 23 and November 13.

Meanwhile, Formula One's owners were facing accusations of greed yesteday after a story in The Independent detailing how little the sport pays in corporation tax thanks to a complex arrangement with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Formula One made a net contribution of £945,663 in corporation tax in 2011 on revenues of £980m - even though the majority of its commercial operations are based in the UK.

Details of the arrangement with HMRC, which came from the prospectus for the stalled flotation of Formula One on the Singapore stock exchange, were published in Telegraph Sport last year.

The author of both stories has close ties to Ecclestone, making the purpose of yesterday's story in The Independent unclear. Neither Formula One's chief executive nor CVC are likely to have enjoyed having the sport compared to US companies Starbucks, Google and Amazon, all of whom made headlines earlier this year when it was revealed how little tax they paid despite having huge operations in the UK.

It may be that the intention was to advertise to potential investors the fact that Formula One profits from such a good deal with HMRC.